Photographer Kate T.Parker has felt at home on the football field, but temporarily discovered that the same qualities that made her a star player were not necessarily as cherished once she had been unleashed.their crampons.
Now it’s your private project to make no other woman feel that way.
In her most recent book, “Play Like a Girl: Life Lessons from the Soccer Field,” which is published on August 18, Parker will pay tribute to female soccer players, from young women to members of the 2019 Women’s World Cup team.
But what does it mean to play like a girl? In a non-public essay for “Good Morning America,” Parker, who also wrote “Strong Is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Eelles-Even” and “The Heart of a Boy: Celebrating the Strength and Spirit of Boyhood,” explained her connection to sports and why she believes female athletes are never afraid to shine.
I don’t have a moment when I didn’t need to play football.As a child, as I sat on the sidelines of my older brothers’ games, an idea crossed my brain for the 90 minutes in total: I need to get in.Game… I need to play it. I was looking to run, push, kick, sweat and score; I was just looking to be in that field.
I’ve never seen women play before, but I didn’t care.When I was 7, I begged my mom to locate me a team, she did it, and the moment I put on my uniform and went into the box for the first time, I got hooked.
When I was 7 years old, I was impatient (I too, 43, some things never change).I was also told that it was “noisy”, “authoritarian” and “had bad temper”, all of this is very true, but, to be honest, this trio of personality characteristics did not make things less difficult for a woman developing in the 80s.
I sat very well in the mathematical elegance of seventh grade and raised my hand to answer a question.I raised my hand with feeling, sky up and probably with an “Oooo” or a “I, me, me” thrown in a low voice.I’ve never been subtle.) Besides, I knew the answer.My instructor looked at me, shook his head and said, “You’re just showing up,” then kept asking the smartest guy in elegance to answer instead.
And she’s right, showing up.
I proved that I’m smart and capable and that I’m not afraid to go out
This trust in me was not encouraged.
But on the football field, things were different, fortunately, wonderfully different.Showing wasn’t a bad thing. And those features that have earned me labels like “difficult” or “insisting” from the beginning have really helped me become a smart football player, no, fair.All the parts of me that others tried to melt or change, my coaches enjoyed, my volume and aggressiveness helped me to win balls and score goals …and take out yellow cards, but that’s another story.
“Play Like A Girl” was created to help women and women recognize the many classes in which we can be informed of a game, especially football.What we notice about ourselves on the court can be very valuable to us off the court.Personally, I have won a lot playing and being in this game for almost 40 years.I learned that it is more vital than what your frame does than it seems, that your teammates support you and that you deserve to have theirs, and that it is vital to recognize and celebrate what you are smart about and not to be afraid of.To show it a little bit.
This eBook means a lot to me. I enjoyed the concept of compiling and showing how the game suits us, as women and women, for the better.The grounds and changing rooms (and the bus, education room and long trips) were the study rooms where I learned to the fullest in my life.Having the ability to write and photograph women and women on those pages where some of the amazing things this game has taught me, my daughters and my friends appear is a great gift.
There are rules for a football game, don’t touch the ball with your hands.No tripping or side bumps. Of course, all players know those rules, but what they sought to capture were the “unwritten” rules.For example, rule (or chapter) three: “Celebrate your body”.I looked for each and every one who has played this game and whoever has lamented their “football legs” or who cares about the length of their thighs or calves will recognize how beautiful those legs are, and how they look in a way because of the demands.them in. Or rule five: “Make every minute count.”Of course we know how to do this in a game, but do you do it in your life?Do you take the time out of the box by chasing your dreams and making your voice heard?
Now I’m the mother of two ferocious daughters who play football.I’ve trained a lot of other people and I wear this 7-year-old football player every day.I am very grateful to have been able to locate others who understood and appreciated my stubbornness and enthusiasm and helped transform them into superpowers.Too much we lose those gifts if they are not fed, and I desperately did not need my daughters and the other young athletes I trained to lose their gifts.to calm down if they had something to say, or pretend to be someone they weren’t.
I want everyone to know the same thing.
Sometimes things you don’t like about yourself, or that make you “too” or embarrass you, can be the toughest and most glorious for you.The aggression, determination and intensity that society sees as a disadvantage in women and women are truly your superpowers, both in the field and in the field.
Those superpowers you were born with? Don’t lose them, don’t melt them.And don’t replace them to make others happy.
What makes you cool?What makes you aside in the box and in life?They’re gifts and we lose them too often. We are our superpowers.
All the actors in this e-book have had problems.From women learning the game to some of the most productive players in the world, they’ve all won.They were wounded. They were separated from groups that desperately sought to form, but failed.They sat on the bench, just like you.
But he didn’t break them. They persevered learned from the sport. Football teaches us how to manage life.Life and football are hard, but so are you.
We are taught so early not to shine because other people may not like you or be jealous of you.Shine! Play the great game Leave everything on and off the field.
I was lucky. I had parents who weren’t looking to replace who I was, they encouraged me to play a game that celebrated the fact that I was (and am) on and off the field.I am very grateful to continue this message with my paintings today: whatever it is and whoever it is, it can be celebrated, not softened or replaced to make others happy.
I like that game inspires this component of us.I love that they allow us to be ourselves without excuse, no matter how old, I have noticed that in so many women and women in this ebook, their stories give me hope: the hope that our passions, like football, inspire us to be true to ourselves.By locating our voices on the ground, we locate them as well.It inspired my superpowers, and that even though I don’t play football as much as I was younger, those qualities that have allowed me to stand out in the box allow me to stand out as a mother, as an author, as a business owner, as a lawyer and as a photographer.This ebook helped me locate my voice and gave me the joy of locating in those white lines of the box.
There are so many voices that tell us not to be who we are.Sometimes it’s hard not to forget or perceive who you are.We don’t have to pay attention to ‘ours’ or ‘we shouldn’t’.
Have your strength.
Celebrating.
That’s precisely what it means to play like a child.
24/7 policy of the latest news and events